Smart Tray: Speculating The Future New Zealand Dining Experience

This research proposes a design solution that embraces New Zealander’s proclivity for pervasive digital technology and that aims to meet the needs and desires of the future Kiwi dining experience. This research proposition is directed by an approach that situates itself between future forecasting and speculative design, whereby the design output is viable while simultaneously capable of provoking critical reflection about the future of design as it relates to domestic dining appliances. The development of a design solution, the Smart Tray, encapsulates these aims and has been guided by a comprehensive investigation into the points of connection that exist between culture, technology, design and social behaviour. The Smart Tray seeks to acknowledge New Zealand’s history while embodying its contemporary domestic dining culture in proposing an appliance-device that embraces digital technology as part of the everyday dining experience. This research has been supported by the application of various methodologies inclusive of the critical review of academic literature that has functioned to frame and support the scope of the research proposition; case studies in which a selection of Kiwi households have been interviewed, observed, and their behaviours analysed in order to gain a greater understanding of contemporary dining habits and their relationship with pervasive digital technologies at home; and iterative design development inclusive of concept sketching, sketch modelling, experience prototyping, and user feedback. Although this research is contextualised within New Zealand, the general research outcomes are applicable to a wide market. The outputs produced as a result of this research, including the exegesis and design of the final Smart Tray, are intended to offer a valuable critical perspective and viable future design solution that will aid in furthering the professional field of dining design

Sensitive and Makeable Computational Materials for the Creation of Smart Everyday Objects

The vision of computational materials is to create smart everyday objects using the materi- als that have sensing and computational capabilities embedded into them. However, today’s development of computational materials is limited because its interfaces (i.e. sensors) are unable to support wide ranges of human interactions , and withstand the fabrication meth- ods of everyday objects (e.g. cutting and assembling). These barriers hinder citizens from creating smart every day objects using computational materials on a large scale. To overcome the barriers, this dissertation presents the approaches to develop compu- tational materials to be 1) sensitive to a wide variety of user interactions, including explicit interactions (e.g. user inputs) and implicit interactions (e.g. user contexts), and 2) makeable against a wide range of fabrication operations, such cutting and assembling. I exemplify the approaches through five research projects on two common materials, textile and wood. For each project, I explore how a material interface can be made to sense user inputs or activities, and how it can be optimized to balance sensitivity and fabrication complexity. I discuss the sensing algorithms and machine learning model to interpret the sensor data as high-level abstraction and interaction. I show the practical applications of developed computational materials. I demonstrate the evaluation study to validate their performance and robustness. In the end of this dissertation, I summarize the contributions of my thesis and discuss future directions for the vision of computational materials

Methods of Understanding and Designing For Mobile Communities

Society is increasingly on the move, mobile devices are commonly being used to coordinate group actions, and group communication features are rapidly being added to existing technologies. Despite this, little is known about how mobile groups act, or how communications technologies should be designed to augment existing behaviour. This is partially due to minimal research being done on the topic, but also to the lack of research methods available to study the topic with. Mobile groups are challenging to study because of frequent and long-duration movement, frequent distribution, and the rapidly changing environments they operate within. To address these issues, this research focuses on methodological issues surrounding the development of mobile devices for mobile groups and communities. More specifically it addresses backpackers, who are a relevant example of this type of community. The research primarily explores the convergence of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and the field of mobile device development. This enables the combination of emphasis on designing technologies for groups, social implications, mobile device design, and mobile settings. Major research outcomes presented in this thesis lie in three areas: 1) methods, 2) technology designs, and 3) backpacker culture. Five studies of backpacker behaviour and requirements form the core of the research. The methods used are in-situ and exploratory, and apply both novel and existing techniques to the domain of backpackers and mobile groups. Methods demonstrated in this research include: field trips for exploring mobile group behaviour and device usage, a social pairing exercise to explore social networks, contextual postcards to gain distributed feedback, and blog analysis which provides post-hoc diary data. Theoretical contributions include: observations on method triangulation, a taxonomy of mobility research, method templates to assist method usage, and identification of key categories leading to mobile group requirements. Design related outcomes include: 57 mobile tourism product ideas, a format for conveying product concepts, and a design for a wearable device to assist mobile researchers. Our understanding of backpacker culture has also improved as a consequence of the research. It has also generated user requirements to aid mobile development, methods of visualising mobile groups and communities, and a listing of relevant design tensions. Additionally, the research has added to our understanding of how new technologies such as blogs, SMS and iPods are being used by backpackers and how mobile groups naturally communicate

Feasibility of a Map of Wellington’s Innovation Ecosystem

Innovation in Wellington is not strong as it could be, especially in terms of collaboration. Our goal was to evaluate the feasibility of a visual representation portraying the innovation ecosystem in the Wellington Region. We developed a map depicting the interrelationships between biotechnology companies, tertiary organizations, and other innovation centers in the area. With feedback on our piloted map, we learned that there are concerns about upkeep of data, the audience it would be most useful for, and the software used. From our data, we recommended that Grow Wellington use alternate software to accommodate the specific needs of this map, develop a way to keep the map up to date, and narrow the focus towards those who could benefit directly from it